A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols Archive

Commissioned Carols

When Stephen Cleobury came to King's in 1982 he was keen to demonstrate a commitment to contemporary music for the College's liturgies. He decided that one way of doing this would be to commission a new carol each year for inclusion in A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols; thus a new tradition was born.

The first composer to be commissioned was Lennox Berkeley, and amongst those who have followed him are Thomas Adés, Judith Bingham, James Macmillan, John Rutter, Judith Weir, to name but a few. The most recent commissions are:

Commissioned carol 2022

Music Director Daniel Hyde commissioned Matthew Martin, Precentor and Director of College Music at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, to write the new carol for 2022. Matthew Martin's setting of the text Angelus ad Virginem serves as a tribute to the late great Simon Preston CBE (chorister and later organ scholar at King’s).

Commissioned carol 2021

Cecilia McDowall was commissioned by the Director of Music, Daniel Hyde, composing There is no rose.

Commissioned carol 2020

No commission

Commissioned carol 2019

Philip Moore was commissioned by the new Director of Music, Daniel Hyde, composing a new setting of The Angel Gabriel

Commissioned carol 2018

Judith Weir wrote her second commissioned carol for this service with O mercy divine for choir and cello. It is available to listen at King's College Recordings.

Commissioned carol 2017

Welsh composer Huw Watkins produced a setting of part of the welsh Plygain carol, Carol Eliseus. It is available to listen at King's College Recordings.

Commissioned carol 2016

Michael Berkeley composed This Endernight, based on a traditional 15th century Christmas text. It is available to listen at King's College Recordings.

Commissioned carol 2015

Richard Causton, Fellow in Music at King’s, set a new poem by George Szirtes to music for his carol The Flight.

Commissioned carol 2014

Carl Rütti set to music the medieval hymn De Virgine Maria.

Commissioned carol 2013

Thea Musgrave wrote a setting of the William Blake poem Hear the voice of the Bard (1794).

Commissioned carol 2012

Australian composer Carl Vine wrote this year's carol, which was a setting of Tennyson's poem Ring Out, Wild Bells. For Vine, the poem 'inventively encapsulates the core Christian principles of community, generosity and kindness.'

Commissioned carol 2011

This year's commissioned carol was a setting of Christina Rossetti's Christmas Eve by Tansy Davies. It is available to listen at King's College Recordings.

Commissioned carol 2010

The Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara composed the commissioned carol for 2010, which was simply called Christmas Carol.

Commissioned carol 2009

This year the composer Gabriel Jackson used GK Chesterton's The Christ Child Sat On Mary's Lap as the text for his carol. It is available to listen at King's College Recordings.

Commissioned carol 2008

This year the commission went to the British composer Dominic Muldowney, who wrote Mary.

Commissioned carol 2007

The commission for the Festival in 2007 went to the Australian composer, Brett Dean and his composition, Now comes the dawn, which uses a poem by Richard Watson Gilder, was broadcast live on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Eve. It is available to listen at King's College Recordings.

A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is the Christmas Eve service held in King's Chapel.
History of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols
Our Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve 1918.